Bf baby now refusing bottle at 8 weeks

[Salire86]

Hi,

I’m EBF my 8 week old baby. From 3 weeks we have been given a bottle of expressed milk most days so she’d be used to taking it and to give me a break during the day when needed. She was taking the bottle with no issue but would never settle with it and needed to be breast fed to fall asleep.

However, since turning 7 weeks she has started refusing the bottle. She may gag at it or push it out and started crying. I had a phone consult with a lactation consultant two weeks ago who advised me to move to NUK bottles as she said they cause less nipple confusion. I had been using MAM bottles up to this point. I found that baby didn’t like the NUK so I moved back to MAM after a few days. She took the MAM for about two days before she started refusing...I don’t know if this could be to blame.

This refusal has also coincided with more general fussiness which I assume is a leap or growth spurt but I’m worried she won’t go back to using a bottle!

Anyone experienced this?

You aren't EBF if you're bottle feeding too sorry. I think combi feeding often confuses babies though so you may have to choose between breastfeeding or bottle feeding longterm.

Don't give up yet. Both my babies went through fussy phases when they refused the bottle. One started taking it agin from DH after about 3 weeks trying. The other took a good couple of months of trying different teats and with me and DH feeding. Now she takes any bottle or soppy cup no problem. Nuk latex tests are good as really soft and to me seem like the best 'fake' boob!

@firsttimemum30 what are you sorry about? Your patronizing use of an emoji? My baby only gets breast milk, apologies if I used the phrase incorrectly.

@waspfig I’m continuing to offer the bottle anyway and I sometimes get her to take about an ounce if I persevere so I’ll just keep that up in hope. She’s fussy on the breast at times also so maybe things will improve once she settles